LOS ANGELES , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A hearing to consider who will raise Michael Jackson 's three children has been delayed another week , while lawyers work to avoid a court battle over custody .

Debbie Rowe said she married Michael Jackson to avoid the taboo of having childrien out of wedlock .

The delay -- the third one this month -- was announced Friday afternoon by a Los Angeles County Superior Court spokesman .

Debbie Rowe , Jackson 's ex-wife and mother of his two oldest children , has not publicly revealed whether she will challenge Katherine Jackson , his 79-year-old mother , for custody or visitation rights . Katherine Jackson gained temporary guardianship of her son 's children soon after his death last month .

The two women have been working to `` privately and amicably resolve '' the matter since Jackson 's death , a Jackson family lawyer said .

Rowe 's lawyer said this week that she was not asking the Jackson family for more money in exchange for dropping a possible custody challenge .

A close friend of Rowe said she has been grieving Jackson 's death -- grief made more painful by paparazzi hounding her and media reports vilifying Rowe by depicting her as a heartless woman who would trade her kids for cash .

`` Debbie 's a very caring , wonderful , warm person , '' said Marc Schaffel , who met first met Rowe when he worked for Jackson . `` She 's a very humble person . People , you know , do n't give her credit that she was a friend of Michael 's for over 30 years . ''

Jackson and Rowe met when she was working as a nursing assistant in the Beverly Hills office of Jackson 's dermatologist , Dr. Arnold Klein .

Rowe said in a 2003 interview , later obtained by ABC News , that she became closer to Jackson in 1996 when she consoled him after his brief marriage to Lisa Marie Presley ended .

`` He was upset because he really wanted to be a dad , '' Rowe said . `` I said , ` So , be a dad . ' He looked at me puzzled . That is when I looked at him and said . ` Let me do this . I want to do this . You have been so good to me . You are such a great friend . Please let me do this . You need to be a dad , and I want you to be . ' ''

She told the interviewer they married in 1996 only to `` prevent some of the taboo of a child out of wedlock . ''

While Schaffel would not say if their relationship was sexual , he said Rowe had `` a true , true love there for Michael . ''

Their first child , Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. , was born in February 1997 . A daughter , Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson , was born the next year .

Details of how the children were conceived and who was the biological father have been closely guarded amid much public speculation .

The couple divorced in 1999 with Rowe giving Jackson full custody while she got a $ 8.5 million settlement , according to court documents . Jackson later agreed to additional support .

Rowe gave up parental rights to Jackson in 2001 , but she changed her mind more than two years later and sought temporary custody of the children . A California appeals court later ruled her rights were improperly terminated , opening the door to a possible custody battle .

Rowe claimed in the 2003 interview that she still had `` some influence '' over how Jackson raised the children , citing his practice of covering their faces in public as her idea .

`` That was my request , not his , '' she said .

`` I am the one who 's terrified . I am the one who 's seen the notes that someone 's going to take his children , '' she said .

She said the children do n't call her `` mom '' because she did not want them to .

`` It 's not that they 're not my children , but I had them because I wanted him to be a father , '' she said .

Rowe , 50 , lives on a farm in Palmdale , California , about 60 miles north of Los Angeles , where she breeds horses and dogs .

`` She spends time with all of her horses and her dogs , '' Schaffel said . `` If one of her horses is sick , Debbie will stay up all night long caring for them . She 'll sleep on the floor in the barn with a horse if he 's not well .

`` Debbie does n't run out to all of the social events , '' he said . `` You do n't see her shopping on Rodeo Drive . She 's not hitting the hot spots . She 's not trying to be in the limelight . Debbie is just as happy at home in her very modest , humble , horse ranch . ''

When Hollywood 's paparazzi surrounded her outside a restaurant near her ranch earlier this month , she showed flashes of anger and frustration .

`` Are you ready to fight for your kids ? '' a photographer repeatedly shouted .

`` Are you ready to get your butt kicked ? '' she replied , as she walked through the swarm .

Schaffel said Rowe wants privacy and she 's `` just trying to go on with her life . ''

`` She does n't react well with the paparazzi , '' he said .

Rowe 's lawyers have stepped up their efforts to bolster her public image by firing off warning letters and demanding retractions when they see reports they think are wrong .

One letter sent Tuesday demanded the New York Post retract its report that Rowe had agreed to drop her custody claims for $ 4 million .

`` Ms. Rowe has not accepted -- and will not accept -- any additional financial consideration beyond the spousal support she and Michael Jackson personally agreed to several years ago , '' Eric George said in the letter .

`` Among the several contenders for overzealous and inaccurate sensationalism , the New York Post has now seized top honors , '' George wrote to the paper . `` It would be easier to identify those few background facts that are accurate than to catalog the number of blatant falsehoods in your story . ''

`` The Post stands by its story , '' New York Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allan told CNN .

Rowe also filed a lawsuit this week against a woman who claimed in a TV interview to have e-mails from Rowe saying she did n't really want to raise the children . The suit asked that Rowe be given any money paid to the woman for the interview .

CNN 's Kay Jones contributed to this report .

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Lawyers for Katherine Jackson and Debbie Rowe working to avoid court battle

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Rowe 's friend says vilification in the press exacerbating grief over Jackson 's death

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Jackson and Rowe met when she was a nursing assistant for his dermatologist

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She told ABC in 2003 that she wanted to help Jackson become a dad